FISHING FLEETS

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25 April 2002

Hudghton (Greens/EFA) - Mr President, I thank the rapporteur for his work in this area. It is clear that the capacity of the EU fishing fleet is greater than available resources and that therefore firm action is needed to allow many fish stocks to recover to sustainable levels. Reductions in the fleet are thus essential. The overall fishing effort must be controlled, as well as fleet size, so as to correspond to the resources available. The Commission should better assess the impact of so-called exploited capacity by certain Member States who, at least on paper, claim to have met their MAGP target. The Commission should also ensure stricter enforcement of existing penalties on certain Member States so that the Member States themselves are penalised and not the fishermen. I hope the House will support the amendment which was originally tabled in committee by my group colleague, Mr Nogueira because it is very important. Fisheries in certain areas of the European Union, including Scotland, are a devolved responsibility and it is important that direct communication between ourselves and devolved parliaments should be standard practice.